Managing the Psychological Impact of Medical Trauma: A Guide for Mental Health and Health Care Professionals, by Michelle Flaum-Hall and Scott Hall, New York, NY: Springer Publishing, ISBN: 978-0-8261-2893-5, 2017, 324 pages, $65.00, ebook $51.99.
This text begins from the premise that medical procedures can be traumatizing to those experiencing them. Recognition of the long-term impacts of these experiences is a necessary component for holistic health care. The authoring of the text was clearly triggered by the primary author’s own medically-related trauma, which she describes quite graphically.
The authors, both professional counselors, place general concepts of trauma within the framework of differing levels of medical intervention: planned procedures, life threatening or life altering diagnoses, and medical emergencies. Using the ecological perspective as a foundation, the consequences of medical trauma are highlighted with emphasis on the patient’s meaning making as key when assisting patients going through any health care intervention.
The text would be a useful tool for all professionals in medical settings. The value of integration of mental health professionals in the team and arguments for interprofessional care are strongly articulated. Examining experiences based on individual patient characteristics, the contexts of diagnoses or procedures, the staff, and medical environment are identified as the four focuses of assessment of medical trauma. Little attention in the literature has been paid to this topic, but the topic of medical trauma is timely in the discussion of person-centered care and trauma-informed systems.
The impact of patient medical experiences on families is omitted but would have rounded out important considerations when working with this population. Information on vicarious traumatization, as well, is only minimally covered in reference to the focus of assessment.
This text would serve as a good working guide for a range of professional disciplines in the recognition of trauma experiences and the adaptations needed within systems to address the resulting trauma.
Reviewed by Joan Groessl, MSW, Ph.D., LCSW, Assistant Professor and BSW Program Coordinator, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.